Vothylakas is a village located on the Karpasia/Karpaz peninsula, situated near the main road between Trikomo/Yeni İskele and Rizokarpaso/Dipkarpaz. Vathylakkas means “deep pit” in Greek. In 1975, Turkish Cypriots changed the name to Derince, means “deep-ish.” Derince is also a tobacco growing town and a district in Kocaeli province, situated in the Marmara region of Turkey. Many villages in the Karpasia/Karpaz region were renamed after cigarette and tobacco brand names, so that Vothylakas became Derince, Vasili became Gelincik, Gialousa became Maltepe and Agia Trias became Sipahi. The common explanation for this choice of names is that in the early 1970s the Karpasia/Karpaz region was the main tobacco growing area of Cyprus.
As can be seen from the chart above, Vothylakas was historically a Greek Cypriot village. In the Ottoman census of 1831, Christians constituted the only inhabitants of this settlement. Apart from 1946, all the census records indicate that the village was always inhabited solely by Greek Cypriots. The population had a steady increase during the British period, rising from 224 in 1891 to 509 in 1960.
Displacement:
After the 1974 war, most of the villagers of Vothylakas stayed in the village until 1976. According to Goodwin, their numbers were approximately 400 in October 1975. However, by November 1976, all the Greek Cypriots were forcibly relocated to the other side of the divide. Currently, like the rest of the displaced Greek Cypriots, the Greek Cypriots of Vathylakkas are scattered throughout the island’s south, with small pockets in towns. The number of the Greek Cypriots who were displaced in 1974 was approximately 510 (503 in 1973 census).
Current Inhabitants:
This village was largely used for the settlement of Turkish nationals from Turkey in 1976, mainly from Adana, Osmaniye, Silifke and Oğuzeli in southern Turkey and Gaziantep in the southeast of Turkey. The 2006 Turkish Cypriot census puts the total population of the village at 524.
Websites: